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Summary
Modern DC live-action projects pay tribute to 90s Justice League actors like Shipp and Reeve through different roles.
Keaton’s Batman returned in The Flash movie, hinting at potential legacy tributes to remaining 90s Justice League stars.
Michael Keaton’s Batman joins forces with Christopher Reeve’s Superman, as part of a major Justice League team set in the 1990s through new DC fan art. Before the DCEU movie timeline, there had been a number of different Justice League heroes portrayed on the big and small screens. Throughout the late 1980s into the 1990s, multiple beloved superheroes from the iconic DC team were depicted in live-action despite never crossing paths, as they all existed in separate universes.
Had the superhero landscape looked like what it does today back in the 1990s, it is very possible that Warner Bros. would have attempted to do the Justice League in live-action a lot sooner. To show what that could have looked like, Marco Azrael shared new DC fan art where they brought together Reeve’s Superman and Keaton’s Batman, alongside other Justice League members.
The 1990s Justice League line-up in this fan art brings Superman and Batman together with Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman and John Wesley Shipp’s The Flash. The artwork also pitches Michael Jai White and Kevin Costner as Cyborg and Aquaman respectively. Despite never being tapped as heroes, White got cast as the DC villain Bronze Tiger on Arrow, while Costner landed the role of Jonathan Kent, Superman’s adoptive father, in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel.
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While a Justice League movie never happened in the 1990s, modern DC live-action projects have paid homage and included several of the actors. Shipp ended up joining The CW’s The Flash TV show with Grant Gustin, where he played not one but three characters, which included reprising the role of his Barry Allen from the CBS series. While initially starting out as Barry’s father, Henry Allen, Shipp would later go on to play Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, for several seasons.
Reeve appeared as Dr. Virgil Swann in Smallville seasons 2 and 3, serving as a crucial character to Tom Welling’s Superman in helping him discover his Kryptonian heritage, while Carter appeared as Chloe Sullivan’s mother in season 6. Reeve’s Superman would later be recast with Brandon Routh, who carried on that version of the Man of Steel through Superman Returns and in the Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. Carter not only appeared in Arrowverse’s Supergirl TV show as President Olivia Marsdin, but also as the Themysicarian warrior, Asteria, in Wonder Woman 1984.
2023 marked Keaton’s return as Batman in The Flash movie, as Barry’s consequences for altering the timeline caused the 1990s Caped Crusader to temporarily replace Ben Affleck’s iteration. Though it was through CGI (which received a lot of criticism), Reeve’s Superman also appeared as a cameo during the near destruction of the multiverse. With James Gunn’s DC Universe coming up, perhaps there will be more legacy tributes to the remaining Justice League stars of the 1990s.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Director Zack Snyder’s initial vision for Justice League follows Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), the Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and Aquaman (Jason Momoa) as they battle to prevent the forces of New God Steppenwolf from conquering Earth. The Snyder cut of the film differs significantly from the theatrically released original, including numerous additional story elements and sequences that were later cut from the film.
Source: Marco Azrael/Instagram
Key Release Dates
The Batman Part II
“}]] When will a new Justice League film happen? Read More